The Lifelong Lie
by The-Napoleon-Of-Crime
Summary: My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.
1. Chapter 1

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own absolutely nothing.

* * *

Chapter 1- To Begin The Journey

* * *

_Present Day._

"Wot's up with you, misery?" Asked Rumpleteazer, slumping down onto a pillow beside Mungojerrie inside their shared den.

Mungojerrie lifted his arms to cover his face, despite having his eyes already closed and muttered something in response to the question.

"Well, even if you were about to convince me that nothing was wrong, doing that is pretty see through, Jer…"

Jerrie remained like that for a few moments, then he sat upright and looked down at Rumpleteazer, looking tired and frustrated all at the same time.

"Oi'm just sick of this, Teaze… Oi hate having to lie from morning to night to everyone! Oi'm sick of putting on this personality! And Oi'm sick of being here with everyone thinking Oi'm some good tom."

Rumpleteazer sighed softly, looking up at the tiger striped tom. She had plenty of days like this where her mood about their situation plummeted, but lately Jerrie had been having more days like this than any other sort of day.

"Oi know that it's hard, Jer… Oi hate it too, but it's gotta be done, ain't it? We can hardly back out now…"

Rumpleteazer sat up and nuzzled Jerrie's shoulder, but the striped tom pulled away from her and lay back down again, almost as though he didn't even want her touching him while he was in this mood.

"Oi wish we could back out." He muttered angrily.

The two sat in silence for a couple of moments, Jerrie staring across the room and Rumpleteazer looking down into her lap. Then, without over thinking the question, Rumpleteazer turned to look down at her partner in crime.

"Jer, you sure that it's just lying to the Jellicles that is bothering you?"

* * *

_Seven years previous._

When it came down to it, The Hidden Paw was surprisingly hands on when it came to business. Sure, he directed traffic and spent numerous parties soothing a number of far more powerful ego's, but he also liked to get his paws dirty.

He oversaw every shipment that came in and went out, he went out on heists and spent time perfecting forgeries to sell on at a higher price. While a lot of things could be said about Macavity, him taking a back seat when it came to business was certainly not one of them.

He was exactly two years into running his own business, something many cats still couldn't believe, and he loved every second of it. Power had always been an attractive concept to him and he craved more of it as his company grew. However, even with his increasing fame something continued to eat away at him until he was forced to take action.

The Jellicle Cats of the Junkyard were still thorns in his side but luckily he'd developed an idea to bring about their downfall. Finally he was in the position to take control and Macavity had waited for this day to come for long enough.

Perched on the edge of an old wooden chair, located in the centre of the main room belonging to the second floor of his headquarters, Macavity sealed the fifteenth and last box which was to be taken across to Glasgow later that day. He had secured every box and carefully checked that drugs were the only thing that each contained.

He simply couldn't afford to make a mess of an order. Since he was still fairly new on the scene he still needed every client that he could get. And more importantly he needed to keep those he did do business with.

"Boss?"

A tiger striped tabby stood in the doorway, staring nervously across at Macavity, whom was sitting with his back to the agent.

"Come in, Mungojerrie." Came the drawling response.

The young tom edged quietly into the room until he was standing next to the Hidden Paw, always on edge when it came to ever being alone with his boss.

"Just wondered if you needed me to go along to the drop off later, Sir, or.."

"That won't be necessary, Mungojerrie."

"Oh… right then…"

The two lapsed into an awkward silence, both staring at the stacked sealed boxes until the agent cleared his throat.

"Um, boss?"

Macavity turned his cold expression up to look at the tiger tabby, staring at him through sunken eyes. The agent found the Hidden Paw to be unnerving at the best of times, so when Macavity was staring at him so expectantly it made Jerrie feel even more pressured.

"Yes, Mungojerrie?" Macavity finally hissed.

Jerrie inhaled a breath through his nose, then chuckled nervously.

"T-that's a lot of drugs…"

Macavity bowed his head ever so slightly, which Mungojerrie took to be a show of his agreement, but he remained silent for a while until a thought crossed his mind. The Hidden Paw had been meaning to speak with Mungojerrie and now here was his chance.

"I have a much different job set aside for you, as it happens.."

The off handed comment caused Jerrie a bit of surprise, he had been expecting Macavity to announce that he could leave to save further small talk. Usually Jerrie stole for him and went off to check deals were being done properly, it was odd to think Macavity had another task lined up.

"Sir?"

Jerrie watched as Macavity slowly stood up from the chair, something Jerrie knew was an intimidation technique because Macavity was much taller than him, and waited patiently while Macavity crossed over to the only window in the whole of the second floor. It overlooked the land that surrounded the Warehouse, but also pointed in the direction of, if you were to start walking in a straight direction from that point, the Jellicle Junkyard.

The Junkyard was located across the city, twenty five minutes away while walking to be exact, and while he would never admit it, Macavity had chosen the Warehouse especially because of the ties the place had to the Junkyard. Macavity felt he could always watch the Junkyard, even without it being in his line of sight. Macavity waved Mungojerrie over, but remained facing toward the window and spoke when Mungojerrie had reached his side.

"You can't see it from here, but not far away is a place called The Junkyard. Run by Old Deuteronomy and Munkustrap."

Macavity's hatred of the Jellicles was hardly a secret but Jerrie kept quiet, as though hearing this tale for the first time, because interrupting Macavity whilst he was talking about something he felt was important was simply not an option.

"One day, long after I have made my feelings clear to the tribe that lives there, they will conspire against me. They will group together cats who hate or fear me, or both for that matter, and we will come to blows. I need to be ready for that day Mungojerrie, which is something that you're going to help me with."

Macavity's voice sounded much like silk when he was aiming to impress or to attract attention, so Jerrie found he didn't mind listening to Macavity in these sort of situations, Macavity wasn't patronising or warning him. So Mungojerrie, albeit confused, was completely at ease.

"Me Sir? While I'm flattered, I hardly think I'm right for such an… important job…"

Macavity turned to face the tiger tabby and shook his head, clearly amused by the sheepish look on Jerrie's face at the thought of having to do something which held so much meaning.

"Nonsense. In fact, I could hardly think of someone better for the role." Macavity countered

But his voice was becoming more business like again, which told Jerrie that while Macavity was being perfectly reasonable now, it didn't mean he would take kindly to a refusal.

"You're going to work as a double agent for me, Mungojerrie. You're going to fool them into taking you in and you're going to double cross them at every opportunity, all without them finding out."

"The weather, I hear, is due to take a turn for the worst this evening. A thunder storm is set to cloud London, giving you the perfect chance to enter their lives. This evening, wet and with nowhere to go, you'll turn up on their doorstep and, since they are foolish enough to live with open hearts, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you a home."

"Sir, I… I, uh, really think that maybe this task would be better for one of your more senior employees… I mean, I have only worked for you for the passed nine months…"

Macavity smirked at the tiger tabby, coming into his usual more patronising way of dealing with those that worked for him.

"I'm setting you up with Rumpleteazer, she has been working for me for the passed six months and I'm thoroughly impressed with her ability. I'll leave the details of your partnership up to the two of you, but once you see her, I'm sure you will agree that the two of you were the best pairing for the job."

Mungojerrie was quiet for a little while, still looking out of the window while he tried to collect his thoughts. He had never met this Rumpleteazer in his life and now Macavity was throwing him together with her for Everlast knows how long! In a place with strangers, no less!

"Ah, but Sir," Said Jerrie suddenly, "What about Bombalurina?"

The tall young tom turned to look at his boss and gave him a casual smile, trying to let his charm talk him out of the situation.

"She's a Jellicle cat, say she blows my cover?"

Macavity raised an eyebrow, questioning Jerrie's attempts to get out of the task.

"She hasn't seen you, Mungojerrie, nor has she heard of you. You and Rumpleteazer are strangers to her, when the two of you deliver me information in the future you will simply have to be more careful that she is not around."

Mungojerrie took another minute to try and think up any other excuse, but he soon admitted defeat on the matter. Macavity had made his mind up and it seemed ridiculous to try and tell him otherwise.

"So, you want us there tonight then, Sir?"

"Rumpleteazer will meet you at the gates at eight o'clock this evening, you can work out your cover story then. Spend the week there, then return to tell me how things are coming along."

The Hidden Paw then strode away from the window and sat back down in the chair to look over the boxes once again, signally to Mungojerrie that the conversation was over.

"Yes, Sir…" Jerrie said dejectedly, then without wasting another second, he hurried out of the room to leave the Napoleon of Crime in peace.

* * *

AN/

My latest contribution to the fandom takes places years before the movie, as I'm sure you all can tell, and will probably flick back and forth between present day and years earlier but will most likely run up to the events that the movie dealt with.

I plan to incorporate a number of pairings into this fic along along with my version of how Macavity came to hate the Jellicles, but that will all be featured in further chapters, that is if you guys would like more!

Thanks for reading and I always appreciate hearing feedback, like Macavity appreciates praise.

- Napo.


	2. The First Lie Of Many

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own absolutely nothing.

* * *

Chapter 2- The First Lie Of Many

* * *

Rain wasn't a surprise to any occupant of London but that night in particular drove even London's longest residents inside all evening. The thunder storm came on early evening, at around six o'clock and caused most humans to start searching for candles.

That night in particular was the sort of night that Mungojerrie would have given his tail to have been inside during. At fifteen minutes passed eight Jerrie was still waiting, taking cover under a turned over wooden drawer inside the Junkyard and he was starting to feel numb from the cold.

Ten minutes later he could see the figure of a drenched cat approaching the gates, but he waited until the figure got closer until he dared to crawl out from under his hiding place. Rumpleteazer spotted him coming towards her and stopped in front of the gates, not entirely sure if the tom was in fact Mungojerrie.

"I have no idea what time it is right now but I do know that it certainly isn't eight o'clock."

Mungojerrie snapped as he reached the queen, far too cold and angry at this point to stand outside and spend a long time working out if they were both there for the right reasons.

Rumpleteazer for her part, didn't seem overly eager to check who he was either, and slid through the gates since he had started striding back to where he had initially taken cover.

"Macavity told me ten to eight by the Thames! He sent someone out at five passed eight to tell me that the location was wrong an' to hurry off to the Junkyard!"

Rumpleteazer ducked into the shelter after Mungojerrie and sat down beside him. Jerrie had stacked a few fairly dry newspapers beneath the drawer to make the ground at least comfortable but after waiting for so long it hadn't done much good.

"Bloody bastard… he definitely wanted us to look the part of strays, eh?" Jerrie muttered, noticing Rumpleteazer flinch as thunder rumbled once again.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the rain and the thunder, while they both thought about how well and truly stitched up they had been by their boss. Macavity always did like to cover every tiny detail when it came to his plans.

"Anyway, uh, I'm Mungojerrie…" The tiger striped tom finally informed her.

"Rumpleteazer." The cockney queen mumbled, just loud enough for Jerrie to hear over the rain.

Another couple of minutes passed by and they both seemed to get the same idea. They needed to get on with work and find one of the Jellicles to spin their sob story to. Once they got into a dry den they could talk properly.

Due to them both having concluded the same thing, they both turned to look at each other at the same time and both registered, again, the same thought.

"Ol' Mac wasn't kidding, was he?" Rumpleteazer smiled slightly at him, looking over Mungojerrie before looking down at her own fur.

"I'll admit, I didn't have any clue as to why he thought we in particular would be right to do this… but, I guess he isn't stupid."

"We'd be silly to say we were cousins or mates, wouldn't we?" Rumpleteazer laughed, still thoroughly shocked at how similar she and Mungojerrie looked.

"Well, nobody will question us being brother and sister with this likeness, that's for sure. Plus, if you're my sister, we won't have to figure out how many years we've known each other.."

Rumpleteazer nodded, in full agreement about telling the Jellicles that they were siblings. In fact, she was quite relieved; Macavity had suggested portraying mates and Rumpleteazer had been quite nervous about even acting intimate with a stranger.

"Gonna have to do something about that accent of yours, though." Rumpleteazer soon pointed out, grinning slightly at him.

"What do you mean?" Mungojerrie asked her, wondering why he ought to be the one to change the way he spoke while she made no changes.

"Well, cockney is easier to switch to than that accent you have! An' Oi don't think us sounding different will sit well with the Jellicles. Unless you wanna explain that we've been living away from each other for all these years an' only now wanna live together in some strange place…"

Mungojerrie rolled his eyes, "Fine, fine! You'll have to teach me to speak like you do, then."

"Ain't got time for that now, Oi'll do most of the talkin' an' once we're settled Oi can teach you."

Jerrie wasn't happy about this to say the least, but he understood that she was quite right with what she was saying. Unless he wanted to make up more lies than were necessary it would be better to just go along with the way she spoke.

"So, why are we homeless?" Jerrie questioned, sitting against the back panel of the drawer.

Rumpleteazer had been considering this question on the way over to the Junkyard and had came up with, what she thought, was quite a reasonable explanation.

"We shouldn't lie too much. Oi reckon we should tell them that we have a bit of a dodgy past, wot with stealing an' all that, but say we got into trouble with a few cats an' had to leave where we had been stayin'. Say that we heard the Junkyard was a good placed to settle down and we came straight over."

"What if they turn us away because we might bring trouble to their home?"

Jerrie thought it was as good an answer as any, he simply wanted to ensure their story was strong. After all, Macavity would be fell to deal with if they ended up rejected from the Junkyard.

"Well, we can say that we're on the straight an' narrow now, that we don't wanna live like that anymore. Ol' Mac said they're all suckers for cats with good intentions."

Mungojerrie smiled, assuming that if Rumpleteazer played the conversation right even a hard hearted cat wouldn't be able to refuse a possible project.

"Well, it's only getting later, how about we put that idea to the test?"

* * *

Rumpleteazer made no issue of Mungojerrie's want to get straight on with their task and was soon quickly following him through the Junkyard. The rain was still coming down and they both wanted to find somebody. Luckily for them, the thunder had ceased while they had been talking and the rain was a little quieter now, so Rumpleteazer hoped this would make things easier to start up a scenario.

When the two of them came to an empty clearing, Rumpleteazer found it was the right time to start acting up. Macavity had told her that the Jellicles made dens out of whatever they could and most had dens built around the clearing in order to watch the kittens while they played, so she chose to remain there.

"Oi told you they would be all indoors, Jer! An' unless you wanna start screaming the place down 'til someone comes out to see wot's happening Oi suggest we leave it 'til morning!"

Rumpleteazer shouted, standing at the opposite side of the clearing to Mungojerrie, to warrant her having to shout to be heard by him.

"Oi can't believe Oi let you talk me into this anyway, tonight of all nights! Oi'm bloody freezing, Jer! Come on, let's head back…"

Rumpleteazer began walking toward the middle of the clearing toward Mungojerrie, when a tom climbed over the back of the tire and made his way toward her. The tom was not Mungojerrie, he was however most definitely a Jellicle, and a very wet Jellicle at that.

"Who're you?" Alonzo asked, frowning at the two strangers. He was holding a plastic plate over his head to try and keep dry, but since he had now stopped moving the plate was just gathering rain.

"Oi'm Rumpleteazer an' this is moi brother Mungojerrie. Who're you?"

"I'm Alonzo… I live here, what are you two doing wandering around my home?"

Rumpleteazer had, by this point, noticed that the tom was quite attractive and found that playing damsel in distress wasn't nearly as hard as she had thought it may be.

"Look, we've been walking around London for hours, Oi'll explain everything, but could we speak to somebody in charge? An' Oi would prefer we did that indoors, Alonzo…"

She smiled faintly at the tom, her shivering not needed to be put on now that she was well and truly freezing. After a few moments, Alonzo seemed to cave, as he didn't want to be standing around in the rain either.

"Follow me." He told the two cats, then strode off toward Munkustrap's den to introduce the strangers to the leader of the tribe.

Munkustrap's mate, Demeter, had recently given birth to their second daughter, Jemima, and while she now could stay in her own den, Munkustrap disliked leaving the gold queen to tend to two kittens alone, especially while they were in the middle of the storm. Therefore Alonzo and Skimbleshanks had agreed to go out in the rain and check the Junkyard for possible flooding and take any precautions to stop that from happening, Alonzo had been on his way back to his den when he had came across Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer in the clearing.

After knocking twice and hearing a call to permit entry, Alonzo led the two strangers into Munkustrap's den and shut the door behind him, having tossed away the plate along the way.

Demeter was laid on the bed with her kittens, Victoria and Jemima, while Munkustrap sat at the opposite side as he and his mate had both been trying to calm the kittens during the storm.

"Alonzo? Who are they?" Asked Munkustrap, standing up from the bed as soon as he saw that Alonzo had brought strangers into his home.

Alonzo smiled both at his friend and at Demeter, moving further into the den while Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer remained closely together by the door.

"They can explain everything themselves, I'm sure, but it's pretty cold over here, Munk." Alonzo chuckled, stating the obvious since he was dripping wet inside of a dry den.

Munkustrap quickly seemed to register this and grabbed a tattered spare blanket from the bottom of the bed. He passed it to Alonzo to throw over himself, then he turned to look at the two strange cats, waiting for an explanation.

"We're really sorry if we've interrupted your night, Oi'm Rumpleteazer," The striped queen introduced politely, "An' this is moi brother, Mungojerrie. Alonzo said you were in charge, um… we heard about this place a while ago, apparently you guys ain't against taking in cats that need somewhere to stay…"

Munkustrap raised an eyebrow at the queen, "So you decided to come and ask about living situations in the middle of a storm?"

"Oh, no… we didn't have a choice really. As of today, our old place isn't really an option… moi brother remembered about the Junkyard an' said we ought to try our luck."

Rumpleteazer moved forward a couple of paces and Mungojerrie quietly followed her, keeping up their decision for him to keep quiet until he was sure that he had down the accent.

"What is wrong with your old home?" Munkustrap questioned, keeping his gaze on Rumpleteazer.

"Well… we haven't exactly gotten involved with the nicest of cats over the years an' one has decided that we're no longer safe to be in the parts of our old place… we ain't got humans either, so stayin' there ain't an option."

Munkustrap sighed quietly, not immediately drawn in by the queen and her silent brother. They sounded like bad news and Munkustrap didn't want any trouble to be brought to the Junkyard if they could help it.

"We are a peaceful tribe, I wouldn't want anything or anyone to disturb that, I'm afraid…"

Rumpleteazer quickly nodded, "An' Oi promise we ain't gonna, we ain't gonna cause trouble. We just don't have anywhere else to go… we don't wanna be living that sort of life anymore."

"Munk," Alonzo interjected, looking over at his friend, "Perhaps it isn't wise to be discussing this so late at night? Your kits have been disturbed enough with this weather and I'm sure Deme wants to get some sleep…"

Demeter smiled gratefully at the patched tom and nodded, "Alonzo is right, Munkus. Maybe this can wait until morning?" She suggested.

Munkustrap looked between his friend and his mate, then turned his attention back to the two cats. He wasn't pleased by their presence in his home, but he could appreciate that for the moment they were two cats with nowhere to go in the middle of a storm.

"I'll speak to my father and Skimbleshanks in the morning, we can put your staying here to a vote. I suppose that the two of you are welcome to stay in one of our spare dens until a decision has been made."

Alonzo turned to look at Rumpleteazer and smiled his usual charming smile, also having taken in the fact that she was attractive and the tom she was with was only her brother. He was never one to miss an opportunity.

"A few dens have already been set up for when some of our kittens get older, I'm sure it won't be a problem for you two to take one each for the moment."

Alonzo headed over to Rumpleteazer, ready to show her the way, when Mungojerrie spoke.

"One will be fine, thanks." He stated quickly, then turned and made his way back outside without another word. He'd had quite enough of Alonzo and Rumpleteazer's little glances across at one and other already.

Rumpleteazer smiled sheepishly at Munkustrap, annoyed Jerrie had both potentially offended their host and had spoke up when it had been decided that he would keep quiet for now.

"We've had a pretty bad day, moi brother has been sulking for most of it, ignore him. We're both really grateful, sir…"

"Munkustrap." The tribe leader introduced, then nodded over to the gold queen, who smiled at Rumpleteazer. "And this is my mate, Demeter."

Rumpleteazer smiled back politely at Demeter, then allowed Alonzo to lead her back outside. The patched tom grinned at her and pulled the blanket off of his shoulders, holding it above their heads instead. The gesture didn't stop most of the rain from hitting them, but it was the thought that counted with Rumpleteazer.

The striped queen easily struck up a conversation with the attractive tom as they walked off together, leaving Mungojerrie to moodily trail behind them.

* * *

AN/

A much longer chapter, indeed, but I didn't really want to split the evening into two. Thanks for the feedback though, I'd be very grateful if it kept coming. I loved the responses and yes Mac sure is smart! But you'll find out about Bombalurina and possibly other pairings in coming chapters.

- Napo


	3. Meeting The Family

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own absolutely nothing.

* * *

Chapter 3- Meeting The Family

* * *

Once Alonzo had left the 'siblings' alone to settle into their shared den the previous evening, Rumpleteazer had immediately struck up an argument about Mungojerrie's attitude. Not only had he been rude to Alonzo, she had listed, he had been rude to Munkustrap and ultimately had been no help toward creating a good impression.

For his part, Mungojerrie had apologized and explained that it was down to being cold and soaking wet. He had chosen to not point out the fact that Rumpleteazer had flirted endlessly with Alonzo once they had left Munkustrap's den and instead let the argument fizzle out. He was far too tired and didn't know the queen well enough yet to cause a rift between them.

When the two of them finally snuggled down onto their own makeshift beds at opposite ends of the small den to warm up, only then did they finish up their earlier conversation and came up with the whole of their background.

Mungojerrie was two minutes older, it had been decided, and they were indeed twins. Their mother went on to have another three kittens, two girls and one boy, but the relationship between their parents had never been good. When their father finally left, he took the three kittens with him, leaving Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer with their mother. For two years afterwards their mother struggled to cope, until one day she met another tom.

A street tom. He taught Rumpleteazer and Mungojerrie the tricks of the trade and brought them up to be master thieves. As teenagers, the siblings had gone off and entered into a life of petty crime themselves, getting in with the wrong crowds as they pulled off more heists. It was eventually concluded that Mungojerrie had been the one to double cross a well known alley cat, a decision that Jerrie remained unhappy with, and was the cause of them leaving their home.

After they had developed their past, Rumpleteazer then moved on to teaching Mungojerrie to speak with a cockney accent. Jerrie, whom had always lived in London, had a particularly well spoken accent much like Macavity. However, Jerrie's accent was down to the family he lived with, a very rich family, Jerrie informed her, whose posh and proper accent had easily rubbed off on him. After admitting this to the striped queen, Jerrie quickly promised to introduce Rumpleteazer to the residents of Victoria Grove.

While Jerrie was not a natural, Rumpleteazer spent hours into the night going over words and phrases with him until she was convinced he could pull off a few sentences, they were both too tired to spend any longer on accent building to do much more anyhow. With Jerrie feeling a bit happier and with Rumpleteazer now under the impression that they could in fact pull the lie off, they both settled into an easy sleep.

* * *

"Mungojerrie?"

Jerrie's shoulder was pushed again and he soon woke up to the view of Rumpleteazer leaning over him. For a second he wondered who she was and where he was, but as he woke up, all of the events of last night came back to him and he grumbled purely because he was still very tired.

"What is it?" He asked her quietly, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

Rumpleteazer frowned at her partner, pulling the blanket off of him to encourage him to get up quicker. She had allowed him to sleep in but certainly couldn't have him missing what was going on in the clearing!

"Sorry," He mumbled, quickly remembering, "… Wot is it?"

"Munkustrap has gathered everyone in the clearing, they're doing the vote to see if we get to stay here."

While she felt it would have been wise to stay outside to try and sway the feelings of those voting, Rumpleteazer had felt a little out of sorts among all of the strangers and knew she would feel much less out of place with Mungojerrie with her.

"How do you know? Ain't you tired?" Jerrie asked her, standing up with a quiet yawn.

Rumpleteazer rolled her eyes, "Oi've been up for hours! Alonzo came over this morning, he said that since Oi wouldn't know the best place to catch mice in the Junkyard he would show me. Oi decided to let you sleep…"

"Oh Oi bet you did…" Mungojerrie muttered, smoothing down his fur as best he could in front of a cracked mirror.

"An' wot is that supposed to mean?" Rumpleteazer frowned, looking angrily across at the tiger striped tom.

Mungojerrie turned his head to look at her and frowned right back, "You're just getting awfully close to him already, I think you need to bare in mind why we're here…"

"Oi know exactly why we're here! Oi've been the one doing all the work, thank you very much! If we end up living here, that'll be moi doing, an' if we don't we sure know why that is! Now, Oi suggest you hurry up or they'll have decided!"

Rumpleteazer stomped off to the door, then turned back and glared at the tiger striped tom.

"Oh! An' if you ain't gonna keep up the accent we might as well leave now!"

For a few moments Mungojerrie watched the striped queen stride off then he soon began following behind her, growling to himself as he did so. They certainly weren't creating a good first impression of each other, but Jerrie felt she was mostly to blame for that.

When the two reached the clearing, Mungojerrie was shocked to see just how many cats lived there. He followed Rumpleteazer to the front to where Alonzo was standing and stood close behind when she leaned in to whisper something to the patched tom.

While Alonzo and Rumpleteazer whispered, Jerrie's attention soon drifted to an old tom sitting beside Munkustrap on the tire, both deep in conversation. Next to him was another tom, most likely the Skimbleshanks that Munkustrap had mentioned last night. All of the other cats in the clearing seemed to be discussing the same thing too; all in small groups, but each cat noticed the pair of strangers that joined them.

"Finally," Munkustrap announced, standing up on top of the tire as the whispering from most died down. It appeared that a decision had been reached.

"Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer asked us to give them a home when they both needed one. As I have heard a lot of you say, we don't know the two of them and perhaps it is not wise to allow strangers so easily into our lives, but, as my father has pointed out, if we refused strangers access then my beautiful mate and her sister would have never came to live here."

Munkustrap shared a smile with Demeter, who was sitting with her daughters and two older queens on top of the TSE1. The two queens were fussing quietly over another couple of kits, both queens and toms, but Jerrie assumed that they were simply looking after those kits while their parents were busy.

"The result to allow these two into our home is greater than the vote to turn them away, so I can inform you all that Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are officially part of the tribe."

The decision was met with a few whispers but mostly silence, which hardly surprised the two tiger striped cats. After glancing at Jerrie, Rumpleteazer took the lead and moved over to stand in front of the tire, smiling gratefully at the three toms who had obviously held the most powerful votes before she looked out at the crowd.

"Oi realise that you all might be a bit sceptical an' Oi don't blame you, Oi just wanted to say that moi brother an' Oi are really appreciative to you all an' will do our part in any way we can…"

Most of the adults seemed to accept this but a few looked less than happy with the decision. Nevertheless, Rumpleteazer was stunned when the two older queens sitting by Demeter came up to her and introduced themselves. Their names were Jellylorum and Jennyanydots. Soon after, Demeter also stood to properly introduce herself, holding little Jemima in her arms.

As more of the cats began to greet Rumpleteazer, Mungojerrie noticed that Alonzo had gone off to the tire and was speaking quietly to Munkustrap. The black and white tom was motioning to Rumpleteazer with a grin on his face, but Jerrie couldn't work out the source of conversation.

Feeling annoyed yet again at the patched tom, Mungojerrie strode across to the striped queen and stood behind her, placing a paw on her shoulder to alert her of his presence.

Rumpleteazer glanced behind and smiled when she saw it was Mungojerrie who was now seemingly giving her his support, before turning back to the group of cats that were all pleasantly introducing themselves and began to introduce Mungojerrie as her brother to each of them.

* * *

Minutes had passed since the decision to make Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer part of the family and all of the Jellicles, whether happy about the decision or not, were politely giving their introductions to the siblings.

Rumpleteazer had been drawn slightly away from Mungojerrie and was talking with a smile on her face to Demeter, Jellylorum and a new queen named Cassandra, while Mungojerrie was speaking with a particularly confident tom named The Rum Tum Tugger and Skimbleshanks, who Jerrie had quickly learned was a railway tom and extremely passionate about tales of his past experiences.

It was while Tugger and Skimbleshanks were discussing a queen Skimbleshanks claimed to have courted back in his younger days that Mungojerrie's attention was drawn to possibly the most beautiful queen he had ever seen.

She waltzed straight through the centre where Tugger and Skimbleshanks stood, her hips swaying as she moved, and greeted Mungojerrie with a seductive smile.

"Bombalurina." The attractive queen purred, a sly glint in her eyes.

Mungojerrie was simply mesmerized by her looks, by her voice, by every single thing about her except one tiny detail.

So this was Macavity's mate.

While Bombalurina had never ran into him at one of Macavity's social gatherings or while she was visiting her tomfriend at the Warehouse, Mungojerrie in return had never ran into her. He had simply heard of the gorgeous temptress who had secretly been betraying the Jellicles to keep up a relationship with the Hidden Paw for the passed several months.

He knew Bombalurina and Macavity weren't in a relationship of sorts, but he did knew she stayed in his den at the Warehouse a lot and accompanied him to any party or event. Jerrie also knew her sister was Demeter, mate of the tribe leader, who would freak if she were to ever hear of Bombalurina's connection to Macavity.

Jerrie reached out and took hold of Bombalurina's offered paw, pressing a gentle kiss to the back before letting it go. He flashed her his best smile, ignoring that Tugger was now watching them intently and introduced himself.

"Mungojerrie, very pleased to meet you love."

He was no longer worried about Bombalurina blowing his cover. If she spilled his secret, he would waste no time in spilling hers.

* * *

AN/

Thanks for the feedback, I'm pleased to hear that you're enjoying it and naturally I would love it if you guys kept up with it! So they're in! This is a whole new perspective for me, I don't tend to believe the route I'm going down in normal circumstances, but this whole idea came to me and I'm certainly intrigued by the progression.

- Napo.


	4. The Invite To The Third Floor

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own absolutely nothing. If I did, Macavity would have his own spin-off musical.

* * *

Chapter 4- The Invite To The Third Floor

* * *

In the days that followed, the residents of the Junkyard learned three things about the new siblings that had joined them.

1.) The twins were always together. Even if the two were holding private conversations they were never far from each other and would always end up beside each other again.

2.) Rumpleteazer was beyond doubt the boss. Mungojerrie was far quieter, preferring to listen than speak and his sister often spoke for them both, bringing up Jerrie's name quite a few times even though the conversation had centred around her.

3.) Mungojerrie was incredibly protective of his sister. Among the adults, Alonzo made it known that he was attracted to Rumpleteazer, displeasing Cassandra even more considering Cassandra hadn't voted to keep the twins in the Junkyard in the first place, and Mungojerrie for his part made it known that he did not approve of the patched tom at all.

While Rumpleteazer spent a lot of her time with the queens and Alonzo, Mungojerrie got along far better with The Rum Tum Tugger and quite a lot of the kittens.

Tumblebrutus and Pouncival were thrilled to have the energetic Mungojerrie to play rougher games with, often not giving Mungojerrie a choice in the matter, and Plato, who liked to be by himself, found comfort in Jerrie because he was often quiet too. Being so young, Jerrie found no danger in the kittens, none of them would ever see through his lie, so the tiger striped tom grew as a kitten favourite.

Jerrie also took a quiet interest in Bombalurina. He watched her most of the time while Rumpleteazer was in conversation; intrigued by her beauty and by her attitude. Although, he was most interested in her shameless flirtation with both Alonzo and Tugger.

When the day came to mark that the twin's had been with them for one week, Munkustrap turned to his mate, who was playing with Victoria in their den while Jemima slept and smiled fondly, the tribe leader was pleasantly surprised with the results of allowing the twins to stay.

* * *

"It's going really well," Mungojerrie stated positively, sitting opposite his boss in one of the two seats in front of Macavity's desk. He'd dropped the accent in front of Macavity, but Rumpleteazer had insisted he keep it up even when the two of them were alone together, as that was the only way it would become natural.

"We're sort of splitting ourselves off with a specific group of friends but we've decided that until we've been there longer we should keep together as much as we can. We're both aware that one of us could say something then forget to tell the other, so we need to watch what we say."

"And Munkustrap?" Macavity asked him, as that inquiry mattered most to him.

Jerrie sighed, "He's still suspicious of us, but he's their leader so that's not surprising. I've been talking a lot to his mate Demeter, hopefully once she's accepting of me I can move onto creating a bond with him."

Macavity drank the last of the whisky in his glass, then motioned for Mungojerrie to do the same. Mungojerrie had never been allowed into Macavity's den, nor had he ever been offered a drink by the ginger tom, so Mungojerrie had accepted both eagerly.

"Munkustrap is your main priority, both of you. Don't end up getting side tracked by the others."

From the tone in Macavity's voice, Mungojerrie could tell that he wasn't pleased by the news, even though he had been told that the Jellicles had easily welcomed them!

"That won't happen, Sir, you just need to give us some time, that's all."

Macavity seemed fairly satisfied by this response and leaned forward, filling up his own glass before reaching to fill Mungojerrie's. Jerrie wasn't a big drinker and whisky was much too sharp for him, but as to not appear weak in front of his boss, he held out the glass toward the Hidden Paw.

"Where is Rumpleteazer, then?"

"She was out last night on a heist, Sir. She has left all that she managed to steal downstairs for your viewing." Jerrie explained, bringing his newly filled glass up to his lips but soon thought better of it and placed it slowly on the table.

"And what did you bring back?" Macavity questioned, standing up from his chair to once again show dominance by sheer height.

"I didn't go Sir, I have never been part of her group when it comes to heists, but this evening I can go out myself if you want…"

"No, that is not what I want." Macavity answered sharply.

The ginger tom moved around his desk until he was standing behind the empty chair next to Mungojerrie. Jerrie always hated that his boss got so close and did so to cause deliberate nervousness.

"I think the two of you should start working together, more will be done if you take part in heists together. It will work on any gaps there may be in your closeness. Is that clear, Mungojerrie?"

Jerrie cast his eyes downward and took a large drink from his glass, coughing slightly afterwards once he remembered that he couldn't handle such alcohol well and nodded gently.

"Yes, Sir…"

* * *

"Did it go okay?" Rumpleteazer asked when Mungojerrie returned to their den. When asked if they had wanted two separate dens now that they were in fact part of the tribe, Jerrie had led their refusal, then later explained it would be better for them while he was still learning to master the cockney accent.

"Was a bit scary initially, asked how things were coming along, reminded me that Munkustrap was our priority. But yeah, it was fine, Oi reckon we're in his good books for the moment."

Rumpleteazer smiled; partly due to his accent and partly due to the news that their boss was happy with their work. As Jerrie sat down beside her, she pulled a face however and leaned forward to try and smell his breath.

"You stink!" She commented, however he could tell she was teasing.

"Has he ever offered you whisky before when you two have been talking business?" Jerrie asked her thoughtfully.

Rumpleteazer quickly shook her head, "No way! Oi've never even seen the third floor before!"

"Oi hadn't either… He gave me three glasses of whisky… by the second Oi was contemplating asking him if he had any bottled cider but Oi wasn't sure how well that would go down…"

Mungojerrie grinned at her and soon Rumpleteazer was grinning back, and giggling a little bit too!

"Bottled cider? Really, Mungojerrie?"

Jerrie laughed quietly, "Oi meant rum, clearly…" He joked.

"Oh sure…" Rumpleteazer teased, playfully rolling her eyes at him.

The two shared another laugh, before Jerrie quickly remembered the change Macavity had made to another aspect of their lives, only he wasn't sure how Rumpleteazer would feel about it.

"Another thing, he wants us to be partners during heists now. He said it'll help bring back more gear an' it means we'll get closer to make this actin' deal easier."

Rumpleteazer narrowed her eyes slightly, but she wasn't mad at Jerrie, just annoyed at the decision that her boss had made. He was already insisting she and Jerrie spent most of their day together, she hadn't considered he would want her to give up her nights to the striped tom too!

"Wot if you ruin moi flow? Oi don't wanna be carrying you through stealing, too…"

Rumpleteazer gave Jerrie a challenging smirk, but he was all ready to respond to her taunt anyhow, he simply couldn't let that go!

"Maybe Oi have to let you do most of the talking around here, but Oi promise you Oi'll best you at stealing. Just try an' keep up!"

The tiger striped queen was amused by Jerrie's confidence and knew he was a fantastic thief to be working for Macavity, but she just wasn't sure if they would end up working well together. She felt rather strongly about her performance as a thief and simply didn't want anyone to spoil that.

Still, Rumpleteazer winked at him, "Well, we'll soon see who bests who, won't we?"

* * *

AN/

The fourth installment, I hope you enjoy!

- Napo.


	5. First Time Round

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own nothing, still.

* * *

Chapter 5- First Time Round

* * *

"Oi just get the feeling that this isn't gonna go well…"

Rumpleteazer made a face as she watched her newly recruited partner Mungojerrie wander along the branch, inching slightly further forward herself to get a better look at what he was doing. She had allowed him to choose the house, it was the place Jerrie had been meaning to steal from for weeks. It seemed fair that, since she had been taking the lead with the Jellicles, she allow him to take the lead in their first heist.

"Well it isn't if you don't shut up…" Jerrie hissed, trying to focus on not falling from the thin branch.

As Rumpleteazer rolled her eyes behind him, the tiger striped tom came to a stop at the end of the branch. He quickly glanced back at her, then studied the leap he had to make. It wasn't far away, he just had to land as quietly as possible. After picking his ideal spot, Jerrie jumped from the tree onto the top of the conservatory . He landed with a soft thud and waited a couple of seconds just in case any movement from inside the house stirred, but when all remained silent he climbed onto the window sill and moved through the little gap.

Once inside, Jerrie jumped onto the soft carpet and looked around, immediately noticing that he was in the bedroom of a sleeping child. The room was fairly tidy so he was able to sneak across the room without stepping on anything that could cause harm or make noise and was soon out in the hallway looking for the bedroom belonging to the child's parents.

Jerrie, like most thieves who worked for Macavity, was used to using his fellow partners for a safe entry to the house, so once inside he forgot all about Rumpleteazer, who was only just getting ready to leap onto the conservatory outside! The male thief poked his head around the door of another two rooms; one belonging to an older child and the other a study before finally reaching the room where two adult humans lay sleeping contently.

He first surveyed the room, having came into contact with Pollicles that liked sleeping at the bottom of their human's beds too many times over the years, then he located the dressing table. With little to no trouble, the calico cat was soon helping himself to an expensive new watch and two silver necklaces, one of which held a diamond engagement ring he felt really shouldn't have been just laying around. He leaned down and slid the necklaces over his head, then picked up the watch in his mouth.

Rather pleased with what he had gotten from the bedroom, Jerrie then made his way downstairs to find the kitchen, tempted to try his luck with the silverware too!

While cutting through the living room, Mungojerrie caught sight of a vase holding flowers located on top of a high shelf on the wall. The vase was glass with a pattern of intertwining flowers as the main theme and Jerrie was sure that it would sell for a decent price. Although he knew it was risky since he was going to have to make a jump to get back to the tree, Jerrie simply couldn't help himself and climbed onto the couch to grab the vase.

He adjusted the watch in his mouth and climbed up from the back of the couch onto the first of three shelves. The shelf was fairly bare so he didn't have to worry about his tail knocking anything off, but as he was moving onto the second shelf, a familiar noise caught his attention.

The annoying bark of a puppy sent shivers up his spine. He knew that exact bark too; it belonged to a Labrador, one of the worst Pollicles a thief could run into as it was one that, even when faced with a cat, liked to play. Suddenly, Jerrie realised the reason for the bark, Rumpleteazer! The puppy must have been sleeping in one of the other rooms!

Abandoning the vase, however much he wanted to make a quick grab for it, Jerrie leaped down to the floor and bolted up the stairs. As the dog barked again, Mungojerrie ducked into the study, hiding behind the door as a teenage boy left his little sister's room holding the pup.

Mungojerrie waited until the stairs stopped creaking and he could hear the puppy yapping downstairs before he came out started moving along the hall. He assumed the puppy had chased Rumpleteazer into the little girl's room so rather than looking around the rest of the house, he returned to the room he had used to gain access.

The bedroom was still in darkness and the child seemed to be sleeping, so Jerrie made straight for the window. As he was climbing onto the sill, he heard movement behind him and turned, immediately realizing that the child in fact had not been sleeping like he'd imagined.

"THOMAS! I think Oscar found a kitty in my room!" The little girl screeched, jumping up from her bed to inspect the cat and what he was holding!

Without wasting any time, Jerrie climbed through the gap and ran along the conservatory. He leaped upwards when he reached the end of the building and landed on the branch, immediately steadying himself to avoid falling.

"There you are!"

Jerrie turned his attention to the bottom of the tree, where Rumpleteazer was waiting holding the two bags they had left there to hold their stolen items while heading back to the Junkyard.

The striped queen watched as Jerrie climbed down from the tree and strode over to her, quickly noticing that he didn't look impressed. She shoved his bag into his chest when he reached her and waited while he dropped the watch and necklaces inside.

"You set the puppy off! I thought you were meant to be a good thief!"

"Oi am a good thief! Oi cleaned out downstairs while you were doing whatever it was in whichever room!"

Jerrie glared at her, now stomping away from the tree in the garden with his bag thrown over his shoulder.

"I got a bunch of stuff from the parent's bedroom and was about to bring back a vase too when you woke up the Pollicle!" He accused.

"So that's why there was nothing in the parent's room! Oi always do the parents room! You threw me off so Oi went into the brother's bedroom to have a little look… Oi didn't know that the pup was laid on his bed!"

Rumpleteazer followed after her partner, carrying her own bag over her shoulder, with a frown on her face.

Whenever Macavity sent out group heists, she was always the one that took the bedroom of the adults!

"In my group, I take bedrooms. Felix checks out the whole house for Pollicles and takes the kitchen, I take the bedrooms, Riley takes the living room and dining room, Nixon takes everywhere else."

Rumpleteazer hissed quietly, "Well, you coulda told me that! In moi group, Oi take bedrooms! Stephan always the one to check out the whole house!"

"Yeah? Well you could have told me that. What did you get from downstairs, anyway?"

* * *

When the two striped cats arrived back in their den they settled on Rumpleteazer's bed and emptied out their bags. Along with Jerrie's watch and two necklaces from the parent's bedroom, Rumpleteazer had gotten a small jewelled picture frame and a little music box from the lower shelf in the living room.

"Are we agreed, then?" Jerrie asked her.

"Next time, you wait until Oi actually get in the place before going off! We both check around the whole house, then Oi take the downstairs an' you take the upstairs. We take our bags inside with us. Agreed."

The calico queen collected all of the items and stuffed them into her bag, then glanced around their den for somewhere to hide it until Jerrie could take it to Macavity.

"Rumpleteazer?"

"Hm?"

"I screwed up a lot tonight, didn't I? I guess I'm not really used to just having one partner…"

Rumpleteazer turned back to him after stuffing the bag into the bottom drawer of a broken cabinet and smiled faintly, a little less angry with him now that he had acknowledged that the failing of their spree hadn't all been her fault.

"An'?"

Jerrie raised an eyebrow, "And what?"

"An' you're gonna remember moi accent in future, right?"

Jerrie stared at her in confusion for a moment, then his eyes widened in realisation.

"Oh! Yeah, Oi am! Good job we didn't run into any of the tribe.."

Rumpleteazer smiled faintly at him, "Yeah, good job."

"An' Rumpleteazer? You screwed up tonight, as well."

"Yeah, Oi did." She agreed with a soft sigh, "Maybe we're not cut out for being partners just yet."

* * *

AN/

I was just waiting for the accent to be mentioned so here is my excuse; my very good friend and his whole family are cockneys so there are a lot of things I know he would and wouldn't say, but because you guys needed to know the difference between Jerrie's accent at the start and the accent at the point of the movie I need to write in the accent for them both.

I hate writing in accents, therefore I'm doing a very basic job of it. You all know how Jerrie and Teazer sound, I'm not going to go into full so yep, there will be some things a cockney wouldn't say, but I'm hoping you guys are reading this with Teazer and Mungo's voices in mind.

Anyhow! Thank you my darlings. I wasn't such a fan of this chapter, but hey ho, it's been uploaded anyway. Mac will make another appearance in the next chapter, I wonder what trouble he's going to stir up next!

- Napo.


	6. Disapproval

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- I own nothing, still.

* * *

Chapter 6- Disapproval

* * *

Settled on top of the tire with her eyes shut, Rumpleteazer ignored the whispers from the cats out in the clearing. She could hear them all judging the fact she was _alone today _and wondering _where her brother was if he wasn't glued to her side_ but she didn't pay any attention to them. Electra had asked if she would come and play tag but she had turned the kitten down.

Rumpleteazer wasn't in the mood to play games at the moment.

Only when she heard footsteps coming toward her did she open her eyes. The striped queen smiled and sat up as Alonzo came to sit with her on top of the tire. She hadn't seen him all morning, but she had seen Cassandra. Rumpleteazer wasn't entirely sure what Cassandra's problem was, but she figured it had something to do with the patched tom.

"No Jerrie?"

Rumpleteazer frowned at him, a little angry that he out of all of the Jellicles decided to mention her brother. Why was everyone so obsessed with their relationship? Her heist with Jerrie the night before had left her feeling deflated, it was hard spending so much time with one cat, especially when everyone around her thought it was odd.

"It doesn't look like it, so no…" She muttered.

Alonzo raised an eyebrow at the queen and nudged her shoulder lightly with his head, not one to be taken in by a queen's bad mood when he was sure he could change it.

"It's just weird you not being with him, that's all. You two have been inseparable since you got here."

"So? Now Oi'm not with him, Oi don't see the big deal, Alonzo." She replied, idly watching the body language of Munkustrap and Skimbleshanks who were deep in conversation at the opposite side of the Junkyard.

"I guess it's not a big deal… Tanto and Cori are together all of the time, too. But, we're used to that, you know? If they weren't skulking around in the shadows together I think we'd be expecting the world to soon end."

Rumpleteazer gave him a faint smile, appreciating that he was at least trying to cheer her up.

"It's good, anyway," He soon concluded, "I've been waiting for him to not be attached to your side to ask you."

The striped queen raised an eyebrow, returning her attention to Alonzo.

"Ask me wot?"

"If you wanted to go out with me sometime, I got the feeling your brother might insist on coming along on the date if he was around when I mentioned it…"

Alonzo grinned at her and Rumpleteazer smiled. She felt there was some truth in what Alonzo said. Mungojerrie perhaps wouldn't have invited himself along, but he certainly would have tried to talk her out of going.

"Well, I'm alone now." She laughed, "We could go out an' get something to eat while 'e's not around. Oi'm sure that way you'll only have to deal with him glaring at you when we come back."

Alonzo chuckled quietly at her suggestion, but nodded to show that her agreed with her proposal. He wasn't doing anything of importance; why not take her out for lunch? The patched tom slid down from the tire, then offered her his paw to help her down. Rumpleteazer accepted it with a giggle, allowing him to help her down with a smile on her face.

"I know the perfect place," Alonzo told her, then led her out of the clearing, still holding onto her paw.

* * *

Hours after Alonzo and Rumpleteazer had left the Junkyard, Mungojerrie took his partner's place in a slump position on the tire. He'd taken the loot to Macavity that morning and had came back to be told that his sister had been seen leaving with the patched tom! Why Rumpleteazer thought dating one of the Jellicles was a good idea, Mungojerrie would never know, but he was incredibly angry about it.

Along with learning Rumpleteazer had gone off, he'd seen something that disturbed him greatly. While walking to the clearing, Jerrie usually had to pass by the den belonging to The Rum Tum Tugger. Usually Tugger was nowhere in sight, but unluckily, Jerrie had happened to catch him outside upon returning from the Warehouse. Outside with his tongue planted firmly in Bombalurina's mouth. Jerrie had quickly gotten himself out of sight and chose another entry route to the clearing, he didn't want Tugger later bragging about his conquest if knew knew Jerrie had seen!

It was entirely true that Bombalurina was not in a proper relationship with the ginger tom, no doubt Macavity saw other queens while Bombalurina was at the Junkyard, but Jerrie knew that if Macavity found out he would be less than pleased. In the short time Jerrie had known Macavity, he'd learned that the Hidden Paw accepted nothing less than total loyalty.

While Macavity himself didn't mind straying from one queen; the queen was expected to remain faithful to him, even a queen like Bombalurina.

His initial thought was to ask Macavity if he knew about Bomba's activities with other toms, but after thinking on that for a while he decided against bringing it up. If Macavity didn't know, the outcome for Bombalurina would no doubt be nasty. Still, Jerrie feared that if Macavity found out he had known about Bombalurina's relationship with Tugger he would be in bigger trouble.

"You're awfully quiet."

In his bad mood, Jerrie even hadn't noticed Demeter come and sit beside him. He often talked to Demeter if there was a group situation but it seemed to Jerrie that Demeter was always busy with her daughters, it was rare to see her out without them.

"And by awfully quiet, I mean you and your sister aren't out here tiring the kittens out with one of your games."

"Oi guess Oi have a lot to think about…" Jerrie shrugged.

"A problem shared can sometimes be a problem halved, Mungojerrie."

Jerrie sat up after a minute and sighed roughly, deciding to put aside his own thoughts for the moment and do his job. If he got close to Demeter, she would put in a good word for him with her mate. The sooner Munkustrap trusted him, the sooner Jerrie could start feeding back information to his boss.

"Moi sister is out with Alonzo… Oi get that's she's a grown queen an' she's had tomfriends before, but Oi just don't like him… Oi know Munkustrap trusts him, but that's just how Oi feel…"

Demeter smiled at the striped tom, feeling a bit of sympathy for him. Bombalurina was forever choosing the worst toms to date, so Demeter knew a thing or two about disliking a sibling's choice of partner.

"He's not exactly my favourite tom, but Alonzo is harmless really. He's a lot of talk most of the time, Rumpleteazer just needs to find that out."

Jerrie nodded slightly, "Oi know, Oi just wish she'd do it already."

"If you keep trying to push her away from dating him, she'll only see him more to annoy you. That's what my sister does, anyway, I'm sure you can guess the sort of tom my sister goes for."

It took all his strength to not smirk outright at the gold queen. Jerrie knew all too well the sort of tom that Bombalurina went out with.

In that moment, it was Jerrie's turn to feel sympathy for Demeter.

"Bombalurina doesn't date good gentletoms? Oi'm shocked!" Jerrie grinned.

Demeter laughed softly, not surprised that in his short stay at the Junkyard he had picked up on Bombalurina's personality. It wasn't a secret that Bombalurina had an ongoing fling with Tugger, but rumours often stated that she was going off with Alonzo as well, not to mention all of the other dreadful toms Demeter had met over the years.

"Trust me, Rumpleteazer dating Alonzo is a dream compared to some of the horrors my sister has gone for."

Jerrie grinned at her, "She's not into striped ex thieves, is she?" He joked.

"I think she'd eat you for breakfast, Mungojerrie. I'm pleased to say you're far too nice."

Jerrie raised an eyebrow, "She goes for worse then ex thieves? Well, you landed on your feet with Munkustrap. You must be the lucky one."

Demeter nodded, "I'm very lucky, but I have certainly made my mistakes before Munk. At least I settled down."

Curious, Jerrie smiled at her, "Mistakes? You didn't date Tugger too, did you?"

"No, nothing like that. Just… compared to some toms, Alonzo is great. You needn't be too worried, try to remember that."

Jerrie was about to respond but before he could do so Demeter had caught sight of her mate coming toward her and was standing up to greet him.

"Looks like it's time already," The gold queen chuckled, glancing back at Jerrie.

"Something nice planned?" Jerrie asked her.

"Jelly is going to look after the girls, Munkustrap and I are going out for the evening. I finally convinced him that the pile of work he has wouldn't grow bigger if he took a few hours off."

Jerrie smiled faintly, watching as Munkustrap got closer. "Have a nice time, Demeter."

Demeter smiled at him and nodded, "I will, thank you."

Jerrie laid back down as Demeter walked away toward her mate, resting his head on his paws. He laid in silence for a couple of minutes, watching the gold queen and her mate along with the other cats around the junkyard, but just as his thoughts began to dwell on what Demeter meant by past mistakes, a thought struck him.

Macavity wanted information. Munkustrap was going to be out for the night.

If he couldn't quickly get into Munkustrap's trust, Mungojerrie would instead get into Munkustrap's den.

* * *

AN/

Maybe Mac wasn't in this chapter directly, but I switched some things around so he at least played a part.

Anyhow! Bomba x Tugger? Bomba x Macavity? Alonzo x Rumpleteazer? Jerrie sure isn't happy about any of it, bless him. Will he be caught sneaking into Munk's den? So many possibilities.

Thanks for reading guys, keep up the fab reviewing and I hope you all continue to enjoy.

- Napo.


	7. A Thief In The Night

Title- The Lifelong Lie

Summary- My take on how Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer met and came to live at the Junkyard, along with Macavity's background and his heavy influence in our favourite duo's lives.

Rating- T

Disclaimer- Still don't own a thing, damn.

* * *

Chapter 7- A Thief In The Night

* * *

"Something's on your mind," Bombalurina commented, lifting her head to look at the ginger tom. "You can talk to me you know… about things. Anything."

Macavity shifted slightly so that his head was resting on the arm of the couch, still staring up at the ceiling while Bombalurina turned onto her side beside him and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"I only say this because you're boring me now, Mac. What's wrong?"

Macavity chuckled slightly, having wondered why the scarlet queen had taken an interest in his mood.

"You were fine before," She pointed out.

"We were having sex before," The ginger tom answered dryly, not incredibly happy with the thought of explaining what he was thinking about.

"Mhm," Bombalurina smirked, idly brushing her paw over his chest. "We were. And now we're not and something is bothering you."

Macavity shook his head and sat up, forcing Bombalurina to sit up with him. He rested his elbows on the arm of the couch instead and watched as Bombalurina moved her legs over his so that she was comfortably sitting and able to see his face.

"It isn't bothering me, as such. I'm simply pondering the event." The Hidden Paw clarified, reaching down to pick up the glass of whisky he'd half drank.

Bombalurina stayed silent, taking the glass from him to take a sip once he'd drank a little more. She rested her head on the back of the couch, wondering what on earth could be playing on the mind of such a clever tom.

"I think I saw my mother earlier… from a distance, of course, but it was still an odd experience." Macavity explained, taking the glass back from Bombalurina to drink the rest of the remaining alcohol.

"Oh?" Bombalurina raised an eyebrow at him, "You told me she was dead. Well, you told me that your father was dead too but we both know that was just wishful thinking."

Macavity smirked idly at the scarlet queen, remembering quite well the time he had told her that both his parents were dead. She was quite right; it had just been wishful thinking toward his father.

"I thought she was, well, one assumes so after this length of time. It was definitely her though, even after all these years. It's impossible not to recognise my mother."

"So she's not dead? Well, that's good, isn't it?" Bombalurina asked.

Macavity frowned at her, trying to work out why she would think this. His mother clearly had no interest in him; or that was how Macavity viewed the situation at least. He still had mixed feelings toward the gold queen.

"Mac, most cats would be happy if they their mother was alive." Bombalurina teased him, then suddenly she grew more serious. "What happened, anyway? With you and your mother, I mean. The Jellicles never speak of any of it."

"And nor do I." The Hidden Paw answered dismissively, then moved her legs so that he could stand up. "Another drink, darling?"

Bombalurina shook her head, also standing up. She was incredibly curious when it came to his mother and his history with the Jellicles but Macavity had always made it incredibly clear that it was not something he wished to discuss. She certainly wasn't going to argue with him on the matter.

"I should be going, it's getting late." She responded instead, striding across his den to look at herself from the reflection in the window.

Macavity nodded in agreement; he never liked her staying overnight too much. It made business difficult, especially since he mostly worked through the night. "Back to your own den tonight, I assume?" He asked casually.

"Mm, we'll see. I may bump into another handsome tom and get a little lost on my way back to my den, you wouldn't mind that, would you?" She asked, but teasing the Hidden Paw while he was not in the best of his good moods wasn't something many would dare do.

Macavity soon appeared behind her but Bombalurina kept watching him from his reflection. "Wouldn't mind?" He repeated, arching an eyebrow as he slid his arms around her waist. "No darling, I wouldn't mind. I'd be horribly offended." His hold got just a little too tight to be comfortable and she could feel his claws grazing her stomach, however, instead of panicking, she tilted her head back slightly and kissed his jaw instead.

"The only den I frequent in the Junkyard belonging to a tom is because of my sister, they're all much too average for my taste, Mac."

His hold slowly loosened and instead he chuckled lowly in her ear "Yes, and how is the lovely Demeter?"

Bombalurina turned to face him, smoothly looping her arms around the back of his neck. "Let's not go there again, shall we?" She scowled.

Smirking, Macavity leaned down to kiss her, then pulled away and motioned to the door. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

* * *

_Next day._

Alonzo sighed quietly and looked over at Cassandra, walking beside her as they left the clearing. He hated when anyone asked to talk to him in private, it always meant that the conversation was going to be awful and awkward and she was already mad at him.

"I don't know what you see in her." Cassandra eventually stated.

"Cass-" He whined.

Cassandra soon stopped and turned to look at the patched tom, "No, I'm not going to complain Lonz, I just don't. Anyway, that isn't what I wanted to talk to you about."

Alonzo tilted his head a little to the left and gave a slight nod to urge Cassandra to continue. If she wasn't going to complain about his relationship with Rumpleteazer then why on earth did she drag him away from everyone else?

"Something isn't right with her brother, Mungojerrie, I-"

"Cass!"

"No, just listen." Cassandra insisted, wanting him to take interest for just five minutes so she could explain what was bothering her. "This isn't because I don't like her. Last night Munk and Deme went out for dinner, didn't they? Munk's den was meant to be empty. It always is, unless you, Deuteronomy or Skimble have something to check on."

Confused, Alonzo shook his head, "No, not really. He doesn't even like us going in randomly, he's pretty private about his work."

"That's exactly what I thought." Cassandra replied, "Which is why I found it odd when I saw Mungojerrie sneaking out last night. He was holding something; it was too dark to see what it was. Now, why would Munk send him to get something and not you? He's only been here five minutes!"

Alonzo found it rather odd to be hearing this; Munkustrap didn't even trust Mungojerrie, there was no reason that Munk would have ever asked Jerrie to be in there. But Jerrie was Rumpleteazer's brother, he didn't want to jump to the worst conclusion simply because the siblings had gotten into some trouble in the past.

"Look, Cass, I know Mungojerrie is a bit weird. But if he was in there then there will be some reasonable explanation for it, what would Munk have in there that Jerrie would want to steal?" He asked.

Cassandra glanced around them, staying quiet for a few moments. She couldn't believe that Alonzo was shrugging this information off so easily; there had to be some reason Mungojerrie was skulking around in the dark!

"I'm just telling you what I saw, Lonz… I think we ought to let Munk know who goes into his den when he's not there. Maybe it'll change some perspectives."

Alonzo sighed in defeat, "I'll talk to Munk about it at some point, see what he thinks, but I think you're reading way too much into this. Just because you don't like Teazer-"

"It's not about me not liking her, Lonz, it's about me not trusting them."

Alonzo quickly shrugged, growing bored of listening to her accusations. "Well, everyone else does, Cass. Everyone else thinks they both fit in here really well; so maybe you just need to lighten up." The patched tom strode passed her and began heading back to the clearing, leaving Cassandra to stare after him, no doubt angered by his refusal to see her point about the twins.

* * *

Mungojerrie waited quietly in the main room on the second floor of the Warehouse, his paws resting behind his back as he leaned his side against the wall facing the door, having given up studying the door minutes into waiting for Macavity.

He had considered showing up to tell the ginger tom that he hadn't found anything, but that would have been a lie. Jerrie disliked thinking about what would happen to him if he lied to Macavity and was found out.

When the door finally opened, in walked Griddlebone, not the Napoleon of Crime, displeasing Jerrie further.

"Is Bombalurina here?" Jerrie asked with a frown, wondering why Macavity hadn't came down to speak to him.

Griddlebone shook her head, sauntering further into the room with her usual look of distaste toward him. The tiger striped tom and Griddlebone had never gotten along particularly well; especially because she thought she was better than him and made no attempt to hide the fact.

"Wonderfully no, she is not. It's quite lovely to not have her striding around like she owns the place today."

"That job is saved for you, is it not, Griddlebone?" Jerrie grinned.

She shot him an annoyed glare, but her expression soon settled back in to the usual patronisingly fake smile. "Hilarious, Mungojerrie." She answered sarcastically, "But no, Macavity just isn't in the mood for seeing anyone today. He told me to get the information from you myself, then you can run off back to your new home."

"Y'know, I would rather not tell you all about what I found out. Tell him I'll come back tomorrow." Jerrie decided.

Griddlebone scoffed quietly at him, "Oh, be my guest. I would love to tell him all about how you refused his orders and took it upon yourself to arrange a meeting best suiting yourself."

Jerrie mumbled something under his breath that Griddlebone luckily didn't hear, but he had to admit that she had him backed into a corner. He would have to spend longer with her whether he wanted to or not, Macavity would be fell to deal with if his orders were ignored.

"Fine," Jerrie growled defeatedly, "But he better not make this kind of thing a habit!"

* * *

AN/

Figured I'd update sooner than usual since I'm always leaving it so late, I'm sure this won't become a regular thing though. Let me know your thoughts, I'm quite excited to dig deeper into the past of the Hidden Paw, but I do like introducing new characters so hopefully this chapter was a bit of a change.

Happy Halloween to you all,

- Napo.


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